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“Really?”

  “Yes. She’s a bit of a sleaze-ball. You never noticed?”

  Emily considered it. “I guess I have, but I always figured it was part of being a businesswoman. Especially in a man’s world.”

  “Do you remember you were surprised to see the tech guy going out of your office?”

  Emily nodded.

  “Jessica let him in. She must be involved.”

  Emily stared at him. “Do you think she’s stealing from the company?”

  “Could be.”

  “What do we do?”

  “You tried to talk to her but it didn’t help. She kept pushing you away. I think it’s time to go to the police or something.”

  Emily scratched her head. “There’s an FBI agent who lives right next to me. I thought I should involve him.”

  “You trust him?”

  “He seems like a good guy.”

  Mike nodded. “That could be a good idea.”

  He made them scrambled eggs and they sat down for breakfast.

  “I never thought Jessica could kill a rat and put it in my bed,” she said.

  “Me neither. It scares me.”

  He got up and hugged her.

  They finished their breakfast, made love, and took a nap together, naked in his bed.

  “Be careful,” he told her before she left.

  Emily knocked on her neighbor’s door before entering her apartment.

  The agent’s wife opened the door without asking who it was.

  “Hi. I’m Emily, your next-door neighbor.”

  “I know who you are.” She raised her eyebrows. “What can I do for you?”

  “You’re Lisa, right?” Emily remembered Bob had mentioned her name once.

  “Yes. I’m sorry but I have something in the oven. How can I help you?”

  “Sorry to bother you. But is your husband home?”

  “No. Why?” She looked her up and down.

  I have a boyfriend, Emily wanted to say.

  Boyfriend. That sounds good.

  She tried not to smile.

  Lisa was older and, even without makeup, looked good.

  “I wanted to ask him something.”

  Lisa raised her eyebrows again.

  “It’s...about his work. Do you know when he might be home?”

  “He’s at work, so God knows when he’ll be back. I’ll tell him you stopped by.”

  She closed the door.

  Bob entered the apartment building after eight p.m. He knew Madison would be asleep, so he took his time talking to the doorman and checking the mail.

  In the elevator, he saw an older woman who greeted him full-heartedly. He’d seen her in the past and always said hello.

  She had a shopping cart full of grocery bags. When he held the door open for her to go out, it took her a long time to exit the elevator.

  “Do you need help with that?” he asked.

  She seemed as if she did, but she also seemed worried.

  “Don’t worry. I’m a federal agent.” He hated doing that, but it seemed like a good cause. “And I also live right above you, on the fifth floor.” He pointed up.

  When she still seemed unsure, he showed her his badge.

  She smiled. “I’d like that. Thank you, young man.”

  No one had called him a young man for a long time.

  He helped her with the door and put the groceries in the refrigerator and cupboards, as she instructed him.

  “Would you like a cup of tea?” she asked when he finished.

  A beer would be nicer.

  He looked at his watch. “I’m sorry. I need to get home.”

  She seemed as if she’d lost her best friend.

  He looked around at her apartment, which seemed similar to theirs, but with old furniture. It didn’t seem as if she’d had company in a while.

  She seems lonelier than I am.

  He looked at his watch again. “You know what? My daughter is probably already asleep, so I have time for a quick cup of tea.” He smiled.

  She smiled. “Won’t your wife mind?”

  He almost said hell no, but kept his mouth shut.

  She nodded as if she understood. She went to the kitchen and put water in an old stove-top whistling kettle and put it on the burner she lit. He sat down and watched her make their tea, as slow as a turtle walking up a hill.

  She told him about her husband who’d passed away a few years back, and how lonely she’d been since her children and grandchildren didn’t come to visit enough. He told her a little about what he did at work, which seemed to impress her.

  After he finished two cups of tea, he promised he’d be back to see her and left.

  “Where have you been?” Lisa asked as he entered their apartment.

  “Work. As usual.”

  “I saw your car in the parking lot over an hour ago.”

  Is she jealous? He tried not to smile.

  “What were you doing in the parking lot?”

  “I forgot something in the trunk.”

  He nodded. “I helped the old lady from the second floor.” He put his gun away in the safe. “Are you jealous?”

  She snorted. “The next-door neighbor came looking for you.”

  “Who? The weird young lady who lives across from us?”

  “That’s the one.” She rolled her eyes.

  “What did she want?”

  “Don’t know. Something about your job,” she said.

  Bob nodded.

  “Maybe her phone got stolen and she thinks the FBI will track it down.” Lisa laughed but her lips remained flat.

  They kept silent for a while.

  “She’s too young for you,” Lisa said.

  “What? I don’t...I hardly know her! We only say hi in the elevator. It’s nothing like that. I—”

  “Relax,” Lisa said and turned to the bedroom. “I don’t care.”

  The following morning, Bob knocked on his neighbor’s door on his way to work. The neighbor seemed happy to see him and asked him in.

  Bob looked back at his apartment, then nodded.

  “Coffee?” she asked.

  Bob had drunk one before he left, but when he saw she had a Nespresso machine, he couldn’t say no to a cappuccino.

  They drank their coffee in her living room. She was a fairly good-looking young woman. Ever since Lisa started talking about getting divorced, he wondered what it would be like to find another woman. He’d never seen a man come to her apartment, but even if he got divorced—Emily was too young for him.

  She told him about herself, her work, and about moving to their apartment building.

  Bob didn’t share much. He didn’t look for new friends, even though being out of his apartment felt good these days. And the coffee tasted good.

  But he needed to get to work.

  “I’m sorry but my wife said you needed something regarding my work?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry.” She fidgeted, then told him about the discrepancies she found at work. When she mentioned the dead rat, Bob opened his eyes wide.

  He took out the notebook from his back pocket. He took notes and more details from Emily, and told her he’d look into it.

  He asked to look around her apartment and she agreed. He didn’t see any forced entry.

  “Did you give someone your keys?”

  “No. Why?”

  “I don’t see any forced entry.” Bob noted.

  “Meanwhile, make sure you lock your door.” Bob saw the cat sitting on the fridge and pointed at it. “Could it have killed the rat?”

  “I doubt it. I just got him, and he’s almost as small as the rat.” Emily smiled. “I call him Romeo.”

  Bob nodded. “What did you do with the rat?”

  “I put it in a bag and threw it in the building’s garbage. And washed the sheets. Three times.”

  Bob shook his head.

  “Stupid, huh?”

  “A little. But don’t worry about it. I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll
see what I can do.”

  “It looks like he’s taking it seriously,” Emily told Mike on the phone.

  “That’s good. I’m glad. Do you want me to come over?”

  “I don’t think so. He said he might be back with a team or something.”

  Mike kept quiet.

  “I mean I’d love to see you, but I think I need to see it through here. And you’ll be safer in your apartment.”

  “You think you’re not safe?”

  “Bob...the agent, he said I should be careful.”

  “I’m worried about you.”

  “I know. I’ll be fine. But thank you.”

  “You’re not going to help her, are you?” Stuber asked Bob in his office.

  “Well, she’s my neighbor and she needs help—”

  “She needs the police, not the FBI. And they probably won’t do much about it either. We can’t open a full-fledged investigation for anyone who comes to us for help.”

  “I did some preliminary investigation and realized this could help us in another case we’re working on.”

  “Really? Which one?”

  “Emily’s start-up investor is Guy Cash. The one we’re looking into for money laundering.”

  “Cash? You’re kidding me.”

  Emily opened the door for Bob, who returned a few hours later with a small team. They weren’t wearing FBI jackets as she’d expected. They seemed like regular people. They dusted for fingerprints and took a few pictures with a big camera. She took a picture of them on her iPhone when they didn’t notice and wanted to send it to Mike. She wished she could post it on Facebook, but figured it wouldn't be a good idea.

  Maybe it’s not a good idea to send it to Mike, either? It might be illegal or something.

  Bob asked a few more questions and took more notes in his small notebook.

  Old school.

  “We’re looking into your company,” Bob said. “And we’ll need your help.”

  Emily nodded.

  “You need to be careful, even though I’ll try to keep an eye out. Call me if you see or hear anything suspicious. Even in the middle of the night. We’ll install a camera next to your apartment. If someone comes back, we’ll know.”

  “Don’t they have cameras in the lobby?”

  “Yes, but we couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary that night. One camera didn’t work. Whoever did this knew where the cameras were and knew how to avoid them.”

  Bob sat in his office with Agent Stuber.

  “Are you sure you’re not too involved in this?” Stuber asked.

  “What do you mean?” Agent Bob said.

  “With her being your neighbor and all.”

  “No.” Bob clenched his teeth. “I didn’t even know her before she approached me. She’s a neighbor, but she’s also a good lead into this company and someone who needs our help.”

  Stuber looked at his laptop. “She’s not bad looking, either.”

  Bob stared at him with piercing eyes. He wanted to hit the table. “That has nothing to do with it.”

  Bob wondered if Stuber knew about his marital problems. He’d shared nothing at work, except with Craig, his best friend.

  And his only friend.

  Stuber would never be his friend.

  Stuber got assigned to him after his last case went sour. He investigated someone who had threatened his family, which caused him to use more force than necessary to make the arrest.

  Stuber was a young, arrogant agent. He thought he knew more than anyone else, which annoyed Bob. No one said it out loud, but he felt his bosses wanted Stuber to watch over him.

  “Okay,” Stuber said. “I looked into the company. You know more about this, but to me, it seems like a regular start-up. They got four million dollars total from investors. I read in an online article that the CEO bragged she’d received more than half of it only for a PowerPoint presentation. I still don’t understand how people get money only for ideas.”

  That’s why they don’t put you in charge of sophisticated cases, only to babysit me, Bob wanted to say out loud.

  Bob had been a co-founder in a start-up before he joined the FBI. It was a social media start-up which did well, but when it became obvious there was no point competing with Facebook, they had to shut down. Bob wanted to make a big change, so he joined the Bureau.

  “It’s a different economy. Investors have FOMO. Fear of Missing Out. They don’t want to be the ones who gave up on the next Uber or Airbnb. In the past, it was easier to get funded if you had only an idea. Today they look more for traction.”

  “You mean they look for money coming into the company? Like a normal business?”

  “Exactly.”

  Stuber nodded. “I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.”

  Bob shook his head. “It’s not easy anymore to get funded just for an idea. From what I saw online, the founder is impressive. Coded since an early age. She had a couple of start-ups as a teenager. What’s their financial status?”

  Stuber looked at his laptop. “The company has twelve employees, including your friend...your neighbor, and Jessica King, the founder and CEO. It looks like they have a profit. Not much, but something.”

  “No one with a criminal record?”

  Stuber shook his head.

  “Do we have access to their emails? Emily said she got a Reply All email which she believes threatened her.”

  “She didn’t show you the email?”

  “No, she said Jessica had let some unknown person into her office, and he deleted her email and all traces of it.”

  “Why would she need to access the office for that? She could have done it from the web, couldn’t she?”

  “Yes, but maybe they’re low-tech, and—”

  “Isn’t it a high-tech company?”

  “Not everyone knows how to hack a phone or an email account. Even if they work in a start-up company.”

  “Yes, but from what you say, I’m guessing Jessica could easily hack her computer.”

  “You’re right. She could probably access all the employees’ emails from a dashboard or something.”

  “Why didn’t she erase it that way?”

  “She may not be involved in this. For all we know, she could also be under threat.”

  “We need to talk to her.”

  “Yes, but not yet. I want to make sure she’s not involved first.”

  “Okay, I’ll work on getting access to their emails.”

  Bob nodded.

  “Do you think Emily’s life is in danger?”

  “I’m not sure. I think they wanted to scare her to stop looking into the issues she found.”

  “If it were Jessica, she could have fired her.”

  “She could have, but that might make Emily want to get revenge. They probably think it’s better to keep her close and keep track of her. This way they have legal access to her laptop and phone—which she got from work.”

  Stuber nodded. “What are we doing to keep her safe?”

  “I’ve had a camera installed next to her apartment, on the pathway between our apartments.”

  A pathway which looked like a balcony connected to Bob’s apartment. Emily’s apartment was in the middle of the pathway, so when she opened the door she could see the outside. Bob’s apartment was the first one after the balcony.

  “An undercover agent will pass by the apartment every few hours,” Bob continued. “I’ll keep an eye out for her and her apartment as well. I don’t think they know I live next door. They probably wouldn’t have done this if they knew.”

  Bob read more about the start-up on his computer. “Do we have a list of investors, besides Guy Cash?”

  Stuber checked his laptop. “Nope. He’s the only one.”

  Seven

  Emily and Mike went out to lunch alone. Usually, they’d have lunch with the whole company, but they both said they had things to do and couldn’t get a break for lunch. Emily left first, saying she had a meeting, and Mike left fift
een minutes later, saying he’d get lunch with a friend.

  Jessica smiled at her as if she knew.

  Emily liked healthy food, so they met at a nearby fresh&co and stood in the long line with the rest of the New Yorkers. She would only eat junk food while traveling.

  “What’s here for a man to eat?” Mike asked after he kissed her.

  She laughed. “Salad?”

  “I don’t eat that. That’s my food’s food.”

  “Sandwich?”

  “Cheeseburger?”

  “I don’t think they have that here.”

  They sat at the only available table, which only fit two people, and was bolted to the floor adjacent to the wall. Next to them sat another couple, lucky enough to get a table for four. Even though the other couple had much more room than Mike and Emily, they sat less than two feet from them.

  Too close.

  “What happened with the FBI?” Mike asked as she chewed on her salad.

  Emily looked around. Even though the couple next to them didn’t seem to be paying attention, she kept her voice low. “My neighbor—the agent—came and asked me questions, said they’ll investigate. He sent a team to check for fingerprints and—”

  “Really?” Mike said aloud. “Like in the movies! I didn’t think they did that.”

  “Shhh.” She gestured for him to lower his voice and looked around. At second glance, the couple next to them seemed like tourists.

  She thought they may not speak English, but she couldn’t be sure since they didn’t speak to each other at all.

  The place was still packed with people working in the area and maybe a few tourists. She looked around until she noticed a mustached man sitting alone. He wore blue jeans and a T-shirt and only drank a soda. He could pass for a thirsty, lonely tourist—but he stared right at her.

  “Are you okay?” Mike held her hand. “Maybe you shouldn’t be there alone, maybe you should—”

  “Shhh.” She told him again, eyes still on the lonely man, who had dark hair and a mustache.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Don’t look now”—she tried to hide her mouth—“but I think someone is watching me.” She played with her food. “Watching us.”